Miss Bridgewater, president of the Campaign to Protect Rural England, said ten billion plastic bottles are thrown away every year and frequently end up ?in hedgerows or bobbing in ponds and lakes.?
She added: ?Like everyone else, I?ve been thrilled by the transformation brought about by the introduction of the 5p charge for plastic bags, which has caused an 80 per cent reduction in their use. Now let?s turn that same determination to curing the curse of plastic bottles.?
Seven billion plastic bags were handed out by shops in 2014.
There were concerns over the impact on waterways and the coastline, and the threat to marine life and birds. The 5p charge, brought in following the Daily Mail?s Banish the Bags campaign, has cut usage to about one billion a year.
A plastic bottle deposit scheme launched in Germany in 2003, and usually consumers get a euro for every four bottles they bring back, if they have only been used once. It is thought to have prevented between one and two billion bottles a year from being littered or entering the refuse system.
Miss Bridgewater, whose ceramic design company launched in 1985 and now employs about 200 people in Stoke-on-Trent, became president of the CPRE in May. Writing in the Mail on Sunday, she said: ?I sometimes wonder what has become of us that we feel the need to carry water around with us at all times. Is it really necessary?
?I am proposing a compulsory deposit system, such as used to be offered on glass bottles, so that customers have a real incentive to return them for proper and safe disposal.?
Miss Bridgewater said that a deposit as low as 10p a bottle would make a difference.
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